Georgia’s Finance Ministry has submitted amendments to the 2026 state budget to Parliament, reducing planned external borrowing by GEL 777 million. The external loan component of budget revenues will fall from GEL 3.26 billion to GEL 2.48 billion, mainly due to the slow implementation of infrastructure and investment projects.
The reduction is largely linked to delays in tender procedures, which have prevented several projects financed by international lenders from using their allocated funds. As a result, some projects are being postponed until 2027. For example, GEL 325 million in loans from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, initially allocated for the Georgian Railway reform, will not be used this year. Funding for the national internetisation project has also been reduced from GEL 100 million to GEL 68.5 million.
Several other major projects have faced significant funding cuts, including the Tbilisi Metro modernisation project, whose allocation has fallen from GEL 83 million to just GEL 200,000. Funding for the Black Sea submarine electricity cable project has been reduced from GEL 25 million to GEL 1.1 million, while the budget for the Enguri Hydropower Plant rehabilitation has been cut from GEL 30 million to GEL 2 million. Allocations for various electricity transmission lines, water supply and wastewater infrastructure projects have also been revised downward.
Other affected projects include the second phase of the Tbilisi bus project, sustainable urban mobility programmes and the Livable Cities Investment Programme. The government attributes the reductions primarily to delays in procurement and tender procedures, resulting in lower-than-planned disbursement of external loans across multiple investment projects.
